While one must enjoy the great outdoors and picnics are fun options in the summer, one has to do so with great responsibility
Summer brings with it reports about drowning, both in the city and beyond. Youngsters enjoying a break from studies venture out for picnics and see their friends perish in water bodies like lakes and ponds.
Often, these persons are larking about in the water and get carried away by the strong current. Three MBA students, two boys and a girl, drowned on Thursday while swimming at the popular Mulshi dam. The dam in Pune is a favourite with Mumbaikars too. While one must enjoy the great outdoors and picnics are fun options in the summer, one has to do so with great responsibility.
It is wise to keep out of rivers, dams, lakes as one simply cannot gauge the depth. If you have to go swimming then, you must do so at a swimming pool where the depth of the water is clearly demarcated.
It is shocking how many people venture into waters, saying they only know how to paddle or think they are safe because their feet touch the floor. They do not think it is necessary to know swimming.
Do not get into the water if you do not know how to swim. Even if you do, swimming in lakes, rivers and away from the shore in seas is not advisable. Often, it is seen that children succumb to peer pressure when they go on picnics and feel forced to follow friends into the water.
Teenagers are afraid of being labelled scared if they refuse to go into the water. Do not feel forced to go into the water, and rebuff labels with firmness and grace. There is a line between bravado and being foolhardy; know where that is. Stay safe and do not try things in which you are (metaphorically and literally) out of your depth.
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